The creation and distribution of digital content, including but not limited to acoustic, visual, and/or interactive media (e.g., video, audio, rich media file formats, etc.), involves many digital content processing activities, including both manual and automated tasks. Digital content processing activities, for example, may include work order management for transformation from physical to digital media, the fulfillment of content processing operations, and the delivery of media to external locations. During the creation and/or distribution of an individual digital content deliverable, one or more processing activities may be executed remotely and/or by third party vendors. Examples of entities involved in the preparation of digital content include film studios, cable providers, and interactive video game developers.
The preparation of digital content may be managed within the originating entity by manually tracking the individual processing activities. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based technologies, such as Business Process Management (BPM), queue management, and/or Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), may additionally be used to track one or more of the processing activities (e.g., in the form of business process state management and messaging). The SOA based technologies, for example, may provide a manner to track some standard automated digital content processing activities.